Lily Allen: moderation week task

Lily Allen’s ‘Hard Out Here’ (For a bitch)

Hard Out Here is a single recently released by Lily Allen, a lyrical genius in terms of realism and making a point.

The video deals with the topic of Value, as it takes us on a journey through Lily’s’ pop comeback and she has to alter her appearance to be good enough for today’s media before appearing on the set of the music video, where then she has to learn to ‘twerk’ to be able to fit into the culture she’s spent so long away from. By showing this as part of the video, it gives the viewers an understanding of what today’s society value in their pop-culture. This point is also proven by when her manager states “How can somebody let themselves get like this? It’s terrifying” whilst in an operating room where Lily is having liposuction, showing that modern music is supported by attractive women and amazing slim figures, proving that this is what the people of today value in women and the music industry.

The video and lyrics also deal with the representation of women and how they are objectified. By Lily saying “I don’t need to shake my ass for you cause’ ive got a brain”, she is suggesting that women don’t need to be eye-candy in order to attract people to the music industry and that it is stupid for anyone to think that it is necessary, as most people do nowadays. Also by saying “You should probably lose some weight / because we can’t see your bones”, she projects a sarcastic message that states how many of the expectations for women today are based around being size 0 and having the ‘perfect skinny figure’.

She also raises the issue of power between genders. She says this through the lines “If I told you 'bout my sex life, you'd call me a slut/ When boys be talking about their bitches, no one's making a fuss/ There's a glass ceiling to break, uh-huh, there's money to make/ And now it's time to speed it up 'cause I can't move at this pace”. This verse signifies that there is a problem within gender equality and implies that women have less power, the function of the verse to inform us of this. She later goes on to say “Inequality promises that it's here to stay/ always trust the injustice 'cause it's not going away”, highlighting the point further.  Another lyric from the song is “You’ll find me in the studio and not in the kitchen”, which shows that she is not conforming to the myth and male dominant ideology that women are the lesser gender and belong as ‘housewives’. This is a controversial topic and as the lyrics are voiced over a sarcastic video, they can be blocked from their audience as the video may act as a barrier to the preferred reading.

The modelling theory suggests that young people aspire to be culturally similar to other individuals, and through the media celebrities are portrayed to be flawless, so this is how young people wish to be. Lily’s’ message to the young primary audience through this video is that you do not have to be a size 0 or be rich to amount to something in life. The code in which she communicates this message to her audience is in a sarcastic video, purposely to attract more attention to the matter, more debate and more speculation. She outlines the fact that the song is sarcasm to not cause any confusion and misleading interpretations by adding the line “If you can’t detect the sarcasm you’ve misunderstood.”

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0CazRHB0so&feature=kp
Lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/lilyallen/hardouthere.html

Essential terms:

Polysemy/Polysemic: refers to the capacity of a text or part of a text to be read in 
several different ways. For example, a red rose might communicate love, a fondness 
for horticulture, a political allegiance or Lancashire. 
"The sign is polysemic, having connotations of freshness, nice odour, forgiveness, gardening and nature/habitiat."

Narrative: the way in which a text reveals information to the audience in order to 

create a ‘story’. 

"Teenagers tend to be very different due to technology in their generation, therefor creating a cyber narrative to live up to."

Open and closed texts: Eco talked about two tendencies of texts: the tendency to 

be ‘open’ and allow/invite/encourage a wide range of different interpretations: the 

opposite tendency presents ‘closed’ text which can only be read in a limited number 

of ways, sometimes only one way. 

"This text is very closed as the signs given do not have many preffered readings"

"This is an open text due to there being many connotations being intended"

Noise source: the origin of any barrier to communication. 

"The noise source of this barrier is the misunderstanding of the connotations intended by the sender."

Index: a type of sign (in C.S. Peirce’s categorisation) that has a direct or causal 

relationship with its signified. The sign points (like an index finger) to its signified. 

Smoke is an index of fire. 

"The ring on the womans hand is an index of marriage, showing that she is unavailable and in commitment."

Function: what a text, group of texts, or indeed communication itself, ‘does’ (inform, 

persuade, entertain, socialise etc).

"The function of this text is to inform its audience of the dangers of smoking"

Anchorage: directing receivers towards one particular meaning from a range of 

possible meanings. A caption can anchor the meaning of a photograph. 

Style shifting: this refers to the way in which we may modify our use of the same 

dialect within different situations. For example, we may use more formal language at 

an interview than we would use at home. 

"In the public self, style shifting is common as we form a mask and become more covered up to appear more suited to the context of the situation"

Olfactics: smell, odour. 

"The onion has connotations of vile olfactics"

Mirror self: the tendency for us to see ourselves through a reflection of how others 

see us. 

Paralanguage: consists of the non-verbal elements that accompany speech. It 

includes the way we speak (also known as prosodic features); volume; pitch; 

intonation; speed of delivery; articulation; rhythm; the sounds we make other than 

language; laughter; crying; lip smacking; yawning; sighing; screeching; coughing; 

filled pauses such as ‘Mmmm’, ‘Ahhh’, Errr’, Ummm; unfilled pauses. 

Bodily Adornment: all the ways in which ‘furnish’ and decorate the body (clothing, 

jewellery, make-up, tattooing etc). 

"The bodily adornments of the woman in the text represent wealth and class."

Context: the situation within which communication takes place.